Yoeun Mek – plays the tror soTest 4 Study Guide: CambodiaFirst Film – The Flute Player:1. Who is Arn Chorn-Pond?- Cambodian Master Flute Player and American Citizen - Teacher of Traditional Cambodian Musical Instruments and Songs- Son of famous opera singer, his father founded Cambodian renowned Chorn Opera House. His was a family of musicians andactors. He, his cousin, and uncle are the sole survivors of the Khmer Rouge era from his father’s line.- Founder of Cambodian Master Performer’s Program, 1999- Former Child Slave (700 children worked in the labor camp with him) under Khmer Rouge control- Forced to assist in killing his fellow Cambodian citizens- Forced to play propaganda music for Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge- Child refugee who fled through jungles of Cambodia for three months before being adopted by American Red Cross Worker in Thailand in 19792. What is the current infrastructure of Cambodia like?- Paved roads in cities, but buildings are not modernized.- Public transportation in major cities, and in small pockets- Rural housing: shacks, crumbling buildings, tent-cities, along dirt roads- Hospitals, schools, libraries, and other public works facilities are being rebuilt slowly in rural areas, more quickly in larger cities, like the capital – Phnom Penh3. Who are the Master Musicians Arn visits?- Kung Nai, known in music circles as “the Ray Charles of Cambodia,” Played most recently at the Cambodia Youth Arts Festival.Is now 68 years old (2013), and has been a teacher in the Cambodian Master Performers Program since 2002.Plays the Chapei Dang weng (a long necked guitar/lute).Background: Blinded by smallpox at the age of four (which also caused extensive facial scarring), Kung Nai was miraculously spared from the Khmer Rouge regime's attempts to wipe out intellectuals and artists. Thanks to Arn Chorn-Pond’s Master Performer’s Program, Master Kung Nai has returned to performing traditional music to large audiences, has performed to international audiences (toured Australia and New Zealand in 2009) and continues to play during religious ceremonies in the Pagoda's of the Cambodian countryside. He still lives in the slums of Cambodia by choice, in a one room flat, but generates more income and brings recognition to Human Rights Issues and Cambodia’s plight.- Yim Saing #1 flute player (also called the khloy – a bamboo flute) in Cambodia. Background: Was a professor of music in Cambodia’s School of Fine Arts prior to Pol Pot’s regime. His school was bombed and destroyed. He said he “cut hair” to avoid being murdered by Khmer Rouge. He then became an essential worker under Pol Pot’s regime as a barber to Khmer Rouge soldiers. He plays five different woodwinds, and prefers to play ajai, a kind of ancient 'rap' music in which two speakers improvise a discussion from the structure of the music. Although mistreatment by the Khmer Rouge left him partially deaf, at 91 years of age (2013), he continues to perform and teach. His daughter Chanthy is also an accomplished flute player. Yim Saing joined the Cambodian Master Performers Program in 1999 and contributed to a documentary on Cambodia’s history in 2011.- Nong Chok – male Bassac opera singer of traditional Cambodian music. Background: This is Arn’s cousin - He frequently performed with the touring opera company run by his uncle – Arn’s father. During the Khmer Rouge's reign, he was allowed to perform only revolutionary songs. After the Khmer Rouge fell from power, he founded a new opera company devoted to telling traditional stories and fables, but in very difficult times, he couldn't keep the company open. He became a teacher at the Cambodian Master Performers Program in 2000. His aims are to reopen the Chorn Opera Company.- Chek Mach – once very famous female Bassac opera singerBackground: She began her vocal training at the age of ten, studying Bassac opera in Phnom Penh. Before the Khmer Rouge came to power, she toured all over Cambodia, performing traditional songs as well as works in Chinese, French,Vietnamese, and Laotian. After meeting Arn Chorn-Pond, she recorded 40 songs with the Master Performer’s Program from 1999 to 2003. During this time, she toured Cambodia with Nong Chok, performing Bassac Opera music. She passed away in January, 2003 at the age of 70. -Yoeun Mek – plays the tror soArn’s teacher and father-like figure while imprisoned by the Khmer RougeBackground: Yoeun Mek has played the tror so since he was fifteen, when he built his first instrument. While a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge, he met Arn Chorn-Pond, and secretly taught him the kind of traditional songs that were then forbidden by the government. After the Khmer Rouge fell from power, he worked in the state department of art and culture. Yoeun Mek began teaching at the Cambodian Master Performers Program in 1999.4. Living conditions of master performers at time of Arn’s visit are very poor. These famous individuals are living like the rest of Cambodians. This means they understand the struggles and the historyof what Cambodians have gone through, most having gone through it themselves, which makes the revival of their music and what they have to express all the more important.5. What does Arn express as his two main reasons for finding the master musicians?- To give them salary and support- To allow them to express themselves through traditional Cambodian music again, which ultimately renews Cambodian culture6. How was Arn treated while imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge?- Forced to remove clothing from prisoners to be executed in frontof him- Forced to play music representing the Khmer Rouge- Given weapons when the Vietnamese came to liberate Cambodia, and told to fight or die.- Given very little food that Arn found a way to share with others for their survival as well as his own7. Who were the Khmer Rouge?- They were a communist funded and supplied grassroots group connected with the Vietcong in Vietnam that made up the guerilla ground forces in Cambodia during U.S. involvement in Vietnam.- They were a dictator regime that killed millions of their own Cambodian citizens following the Vietnam War.- They were a regime that was made up of hierarchical positions with Pol Pot, a former Buddhist monk, as their leader, and children as the lowest class who often served as militia in the jungle borderland of Vietnam and Cambodia.8. What are some of the main issues with preserving traditional music in Cambodia
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